I’ve not been running on full energy for the past couple of days but I think I’ve turned the corner on my head congestion as my voice returns to its normal octave range. I limited posts from Fayette for two reasons. One, I wasn’t feeling too well, and two, the WiFi was not secure and there was no alternative source to connect. In other words we didn’t have reliable cell service. So now that we’re back to civilization, and that I’m feeling better, I’ll try to make up for some down time.

Fayette was worth the trip! This was an iron ore smelting company town, one that arose in a wilderness exploiting its surrounding natural resources - iron ore, abundant timber to fuel the blast furnaces, inexpensive transportation (ships) to industrial cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, and cheap immigrant labor (Canada, France, Norway, Finland, and Germany). In less than 30 years this town went from boom to bust. Its bust was brought about by cheaper production (coal vs timber) methods, and improved technology (refinement of iron ore smelting). After the town was abandoned, private ownership ran it as a tourist destination until WWII when it finally went bust. Fortunately, the State of Michigan had the foresight to acquire the property in 1959 and preserve the town. Today, in association with Easter Michigan University, the State and the University perform restoration projects. Buildings are open for exploring and many are furnished in period furnishings. The grounds have many field markers with photos and the evolving story line.

The marina is fairly new and the harbor is deep and easy to enter. One thing that we enjoyed was there are no lights at the marina or throughout the park so when night comes - it gets dark! Last light is about 2150 and then the stars come out! OMG - the sky is entirely filled with stars. It’s been years since I’ve seen a a truly darkened sky without light pollution. Beautiful!

So, onward today to Egg Harbor, WI, about 50 mile run from Big Bay de Noc to the Bay of Green Bay (all a part of Lake Michigan). We had southeasterly wind pushing 2-3 footers in the open water sections and reducing to 1-2 footers with the protection of Door County peninsula. Tonight we’ll visit our boating friends Virgil and Dorothy, from Egg Harbor. It will be fun to see them again. They had been in HS when we were Cheboygan having the props repaired. We’re anticipating a storm to blow in tomorrow so we’ll be hunkered here for a couple days before moving to Green Bay. We’ll use GB as our base camp to visit my mom who recently went into hospice care and to see my sister and brother in law. In the meantime we’ll try to glean some local knowledge on ports to stay as we make our way down the west shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago.

So that’s the update. Good to be back in civilization but really enjoyed our trip to Fayette.

PS. Some of trees are changing color here, too. In the UP, frost warnings were posted! Lows of 33’ inland; low 40’s on the water. We haven’t used the a/c in days! It’s too early for this stuff!